F&J is a trio of keyboards, bass, and drums, aided on some tracks by samplers. As one might ascertain from the label this album is on, the trio is Hungarian. What is of note, then, is that the music evinces Berlin-school influences from the get-go. Maybe not so surprising, however, when one considers the Cgizlan Istvan album Seven Gates of Al-Hambra, an ethnic-meets-electronica release from a couple of years ago that this release very much reminds me of. The samples are used like instruments, placed in different parts of the bar or combined together in various ways. For example, what sounds like the word “Allah” is shifted between the third and fourth beat of the bar during “Perfect Fly?” The use of a vocal sample as an instrument allows new levels of inter-textual communication, a lengthy vocal sample having something to do with air travel (including the phrase “Perfect Fly”) is juxtaposed with this earlier sampler; a reference to 9/11, or something else? Regardless of the meaning, the driven, pulsating pace of this electronica is, if somewhat conventional, nonetheless engaging. Most of the tracks are not as uptempo, which can make things lull a bit. As someone who often finds ‘vanilla electronica’ a bit tedious, this kind of vaguely ethnic treatment (two more references: Talvin Singh, and Cyrille Verdeaux’s Ethnicolors) is far more likely to leave a lasting impression.

Sean McFee